Defense Wins Championships

Here is a list of the top five highest scoring offenses in NFL history:

1) 2007 Patriots
2) 1998 Vikings
3) 1983 Redskins
4) 2000 Rams
5) 1967 Raiders

Guess what all five of those offenses had in common? None of them won the Super Bowl! A great offense can get you very far, but in the big games, it always comes down to defense. The Pittsburgh Steelers understand this better than anyone in pro football. For the past 40 years, they have built around defense first. The results speak for themselves. Pittsburgh has been the most consistently successful team in the league during that time period.

In 2008, the Steelers showcased one of their best defensive units ever. Their success starts at the top with defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau, who serves as a father figure to his players. As a defensive back for the Detroit Lions, LeBeau set an NFL record which still stands today for consecutive games by a cornerback, and he picked off 62 passes. Only six players in NFL history have recorded more interceptions than LeBeau. As good as his playing career was, LeBeau's biggest contribution to the game came as a defensive coach. In the 1980's, he invented the unpredictable pass rush scheme often referred to as the "zone blitz". Not only has it confused offenses for years, it has also been widely copied around the league. This will be LeBeau's third Super Bowl as defensive coordinator of the Steelers. Since his return to Pittsburgh in 2004, the Steelers have finished with the NFL's #1 defense in three out of the past five seasons. It's safe to say that after 50 years in pro football, LeBeau is somehow still in his prime!

While coaching goes a long way, players are still the ones responsible for executing a game plan. The Steelers have so many big-time players on their defense, starting with a linebacker core composed of players who were by no means projected to be NFL stars. James Harrison was the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year. He is the single most dominant defender in football, but he was cut three times by Pittsburgh and once by Baltimore before he got the chance to start. On the opposite side of the 3-4 formation, LaMarr Woodley has become a pass-rushing terror in just his second year. It's still hard to believe that, despite playing for one of the most well-known college football programs in America and winning such accolades as "College Football Defensive Player of the Year" (from rivals.com), Woodley fell all the way down to the second round of the 2007 draft. James Farrior is not the dominant player he was a few years ago, but he is still better than most. The Jets were happy to let him leave as a free agent in 2002, and the Steelers wisely decided that he would make a great fit for their scheme (yet another dynamite call on my part when I wrote on this site that signing Farrior to replace Earl Holmes was "an EXTREMELY risky move"). Larry Foote was a 4th round draft choice who once got beat so badly in a game in New Orleans that I thought he would get cut on the flight home. Instead he rebounded and became a key part of the defense, along with second year player Lawrence Timmons, who has shown all the critics that he is not the first round bust that many of them said he was.

The talent of the linebackers is often evident during games, but they would be nowhere near as successful without the guys up front. The Steelers have the most underrated defensive linemen in the league. Casey Hampton swallows up runners like they were donuts. Brett Keisel is not only a great lineman, but he is also one of the smartest players on the team. Against the defending champion Giants this season, he stopped a 4th and 1 play at the goal line because he was able to know exactly what play Eli Manning was calling by reading his movements. And then there is Aaron Smith, the man who has anchored this line for ten seasons. If anyone ever asks you to prove how good Smith is, all you need to do is pop in a tape of any of the Steelers' final six games of last season. That's because Smith was injured for those games, and despite having the #1 ranked unit in the league prior to his injury, the defense was unable to stop opposing teams from running ALL OVER them without Smith in the lineup.

Having a dominate front seven is nothing new for the Steelers. Having a great secondary is. For years it was the weak spot of the team. For every Rod Woodson or Carnell Lake, there were dozens of Dewayne Washington's, Delton Hall's, and Chad Scott's. This unit has come together though. Ike Taylor has continually blanketed opposing team's best receiver all season. Deshea Townsend, a guy who has been with the Steelers so long that he was actually teammates with Lake at one point, continues to defy the odds by making big plays against guys years younger than him. Bryant McFadden and William Gay are promising young corners as well. Ryan Clark is so underrated (yet another guy who the defense missed dearly in their late-season decline last season). He doesn't look like he can hit, but man, he can hit with the best of them. He almost killed himself (and Willis McGahee) to ice the conference championship last week. Troy Polamalu is quite simply becoming one of the best players in team history. He has so much talent. Trading up in the 2003 draft to get him might go down as one of the smartest moves the team ever made.

The numbers put up by the defense this season were historical. They ranked #1 in overall defense, #1 against the pass, #1 in points allowed, and barely finished behind Minnesota at #2 against the rush. They allowed just two passes of 40 yards or more during the entire regular season, and one of those came on the fluke Reggie Wayne tip play. The fact that they did all of this given the incredibly difficult schedule they had to play makes it that much more impressive. But it was not the numbers that defined this 2008 defense. Rather, it was the big plays: Woodley's fumble return in the first Baltimore game, the goal line stands in the New York and Washington games, Harrison's back-to-back forced fumbles in the New England game, Townsend's pick six in the Dallas game, Keisel 's deflection in the Chargers playoff game, Polamalu's last minute interception in the AFC Championship Game. Stats are great, but coming thru in the clutch is priceless.

Now the 2008 defense must pass one final test if it truly wants to cement its legacy. They have to stop yet another offensive machine. For this tight-knit group of players, it's a challenge that will no doubt be welcomed with open arms.

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